Posted on 03/20/2020 5:48:52 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
Congress’s seamy underbelly floats up to the surface. – On his Fox News show last night, host Tucker Carlson lambasted Senator Richard Burr – chairman of the corrupt Senate Intelligence Committee – and demanded his resignation for off-loading millions of dollars in stock investments immediately after learning of the threat of the coronavirus.
Here’s a clip, followed by a transcript:
Acyn Torabi @Acyn Tucker Carlson calls for Senator Burr to resign and await prosecution for insider trading if he cannot provide a reasonable explanation for his actions. He goes on to say it appears that Senator Burr betrayed his country in a time of crisis
Embedded video
Transcript:
You may have seen the news reports this afternoon that the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee sold more than a million dollars in stock in mid-February after learning how devastating the Chinese coronavirus could be. He had inside information about what could happen to our country – which is now happening – but he didn’t warn the public. He didn’t give a prime-time address. He didn’t go on television to sound the alarm.
He didn’t even disavow the op/ed he’d written just 10 days before, claiming that America was “better prepared than ever for coronavirus.” He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn’t lose money, and then he stayed silent.
Now, maybe there’s an honest explanation for what he did; if there is, he should share it with the rest of us immediately. Otherwise, he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading. There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis, and that appears to be what happened.
[End]
Now, that’s all great: I have long been a critic of Burr, a useless RINO who has used his chairmanship of the Senate Intel Committee to literally cover up crimes committed against the Trump Campaign and Administration by the Obama-era coup cabal within the DOJ and the Intelligence Community. If he did engage in insider trading then he should resign and be prosecuted.
But let’s be honest here: If you think Burr is the only member of congress who has engaged in this kind of action over the past couple of months, you live in a fairy tale world.
The New York Times ran a report yesterday documenting similar actions by several other senators, including Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). That report is based on financial disclosure statements that members of congress must periodically file. Members are regularly tardy in filing these disclosures, and you can bet the shrinking balance in your 401(k) that we will soon discover that many more members did the same thing.
Some members, when they assume office, shield themselves from this kind of accusation by placing such investments in blind trusts, giving them the plausible deniability of saying that they take no active part in managing their investments. Inhofe, Feinstein and Loeffler all claim that is the case with their investments.
Interestingly, no one from Sen. Burr’s office has made a similar claim at this point. Here’s the statement his spokesperson put out yesterday evening:
“His message has always been, and continues to be, that we must be prepared to protect American lives in the event of a pandemic or bio-attack,” Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for Mr. Burr, said in a statement. “Since early February, whether in constituent meetings or open hearings, he has worked to educate the public about the tools and resources our government has to confront the spread of coronavirus.”
Burr himself took to Twitter to issue a series of tweets about an NPR report covering a speech he made to a group of constituents in February, warning them of the potential impacts of coronavirus on the U.S. economy. Nowhere in those tweets does he attempt to defend his stock divestments.
If Burr does play an active role in managing his own trading, then this is a real problem for him, and helps to explain why Carlson went after him last night, but gave the others a pass.
That is all.
Because I’m a partisan hack who is no better than the Rats. This is war. If we can get a scalp, take it.
Correction: my understanding is he did NOT base his move on non-public information.
“I’m sorry— I’m not seeing anything wrong here. My understanding is he base his information on non-public information.”
Are they blaming Trump,yet?
“I don’t see the crime”
Trading on Insider knowledge pure and simple.
The volume and frequency of his movements (almost thirty
different transactions and basically All his money)
combined with the timing of his briefs are slam-dunks.
Did people on FR predict this?
Sure, but making predictions based on public knowledge is
different than trading on insider information.
The 2012 Statute is pretty on point.
“There may come a day when actions like this result in a very ill tempered public execution by “us little people” “
I bailed out of the market relatively early and still got
hosed. These bastards who were lying and stealing from
us need to quit NOW. I say that out of concern for the
health and safety of all involved.
Actually, I believe Congress critters made themselves exempt from Insider Trading many years ago.
This is how many of them make fortunes from being in office.
Burr, chairman of Intel Committee, is clear evidence my Telcons are being monitored by FISA as he did exactly what I extolled everyone of my buddies to do the monday morning of Feb 23.
One of my buddies called to tell me to be careful on my messages to him as the one I sent had his CEO on as a recipient. Laughed when he said I had to get him off the ceiling when he saw that. Recently he asked him “who was the guy who sent the sell all message”, he wants me as an advisor.
Traitor Burr. Hang him.
I’d like him gone but not at risk of losing the Senate.
What’s the latest on Hitlery’s cattle futures? Wake me when any DUmocrat has to face prosecution for their crimes.
All these old duffs don’t realize all this stuff is permanent and recorded.
The amount of dumb crap people will email and text each other is unbelievable.
If you want to plan a conspiracy you gotta do it in person.
No electronic devices.
The internet is forever, people
I am sure we could find hundreds of investment advisers of who saw the handwriting on the wall in February, and began selling select stocks, without having any government “inside” information.
I’d like to see Romney’s financial disclosures.
“He didn’t even disavow the op/ed he’d written just 10 days before, claiming that America was “better prepared than ever for coronavirus.” He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn’t lose money, and then he stayed silent.”
I’m no fan of Burr. But there are gaping holes in the above arguments.
For one thing, let’s say he dumped his shares and didn’t stay silent about his fears of an economic downturn. Let’s say he publicly announced that he feared a runoff was dumping his stocks. What could he be accused of then?
That’s right. “Instead of using his bully pulpit to promote calm, he used it to incite a panic.” “Worse yet, he may have done it on purpose, to spark a sell off, driving down the stock market to create a buying opportunity.” Etc..
In other words, the argument that he failed to share his fears of an economic downturn - doesn’t make any sense - because nobody appreciates senators fear mongering in a crisis.
Then there is the fact of the stock sale itself. Burr didn’t need secret senate briefings to guess there might be a big sell-off. The very fact of the market sell-off proves that fear was in the air - not just j secret Senate meetings. So, it isn’t insider trading - he’s allowed to make a smart investment decision (many of us did the same thing).
If he did it, then...
When did coronavirus become public knowledge,and when did they sell? I think that’s the key question.
We need to remember that some of these senators were sitting in judgment of President Trump, looking carefully for any undotted i, for any uncrossed t.
I don’t make any pretense to non-bias.
Rope please.
You did not have any insider information when you made your trades, did you? Burr did. This isn’t complicated.
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